Table Of ContentRawls’s Law of Peoples
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I contend that this scenario is realistic – it could and may exist. I say it is also
utopian and highly desirable because it joins reasonableness and justice with condi-
tions enabling citizens to realize their fundamental interests.
John Rawls, The Law of Peoples, p. 7
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Rawls’s Law of Peoples
A Realistic Utopia?
Edited by
Rex Martin and
David A. Reidy
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Editorial material and organization © 2006 by Rex Martin and David A. Reidy.
Chapter 1 © 2006 by Rex Martin and David A. Reidy; Chapter 2 © 2006 by David Boucher;
Chapter 3 © 2006 by Philip Pettit; Chapter 4 © 2006 by Catherine Audard; Chapter 5 © 2006
by Kok-Chor Tan; Chapter 6 © 2006 by Leif Wenar; Chapter 7 © 2006 by Wilfried Hinsch
and Markus Stepanians; Chapter 8 © 2006 by Alistair M. MacLeod; Chapter 9 © 2006 by
Allen Buchanan; Chapter 10 © 2006 by David A. Reidy; Chapter 11 © 2006 by David Miller;
Chapter 12 © 2006 by Thomas Pogge; Chapter 13 © 2006 by Rex Martin; Chapter 14 © 2006
by Samuel Freeman; Chapter 15 © 2006 by James W. Nickel; Chapter 16 © 2006 by Alyssa R.
Bernstein; Chapter 17 © 2006 by Andreas Follesdal.
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING
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First published 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
1 2006
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rawls’s Law of peoples : a realistic utopia? / edited by Rex Martin and David A. Reidy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-3530-6 (hardback : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4051-3530-1 (hardback : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-3531-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4051-3531-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Rawls, John, 1921– Law of peoples. 2.
International relations – Philosophy. 3. International law – Philosophy. 4. Justice. 5. Human
rights. 6. Liberalism. I. Martin, Rex, 1935– II. Reidy, David A., 1962–
JZ1242.R395 2006
320.51–dc22
2005020534
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For my mother, Cecelia Reidy, and in memory of my father,
David Reidy, Sr.
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Contents
Notes on Contributors x
Preface xv
List of Abbreviations xviii
Part I Background and Structure 1
1. Introduction: Reading Rawls’s The Law of Peoples 3
Rex Martin and David A. Reidy
2. Uniting What Right Permits with What Interest Prescribes:
Rawls’s Law of Peoples in Context 19
David Boucher
3. Rawls’s Peoples 38
Philip Pettit
Part II Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and
Universalism: Questions of Priority and Coherence 57
4. Cultural Imperialism and ‘Democratic Peace’ 59
Catherine Audard
5. The Problem of Decent Peoples 76
Kok-Chor Tan
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viii Contents
6. Why Rawls is Not a Cosmopolitan Egalitarian 95
Leif Wenar
Part III On Human Rights 115
7. Human Rights as Moral Claim Rights 117
Wilfried Hinsch and Markus Stepanians
8. Rawls’s Narrow Doctrine of Human Rights 134
Alistair M. Macleod
9. Taking the Human out of Human Rights 150
Allen Buchanan
10. Political Authority and Human Rights 169
David A. Reidy
Part IV On Global Economic Justice 189
11. Collective Responsibility and International Inequality in
The Law of Peoples 191
David Miller
12. Do Rawls’s Two Theories of Justice Fit Together? 206
Thomas Pogge
13. Rawls on International Distributive Economic Justice:
Taking a Closer Look 226
Rex Martin
14. Distributive Justice and The Law of Peoples 243
Samuel Freeman
Part V On Liberal Democratic Foreign Policy 261
15. Are Human Rights Mainly Implemented by Intervention? 263
James W. Nickel
16. A Human Right to Democracy? Legitimacy and Intervention 278
Alyssa R. Bernstein
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Contents ix
17. Justice, Stability, and Toleration in a Federation of
Well-Ordered Peoples 299
Andreas Follesdal
Index 318
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Notes on Contributors
Catherine Audard is a Visiting Fellow at the Philosophy Department of the
London School of Economics, where she has been teaching moral and political
philosophy, as well as continental philosophy, since 1991. She is the Chair of the
Forum for European Philosophy, based at the European Institute of the LSE. She
has published translations into French of works by John Stuart Mill and John
Rawls. Her most recent book is Anthologie historique et critique de l’utilitarisme
in three volumes (1999), and her new book Citoyenneté et pluralisme will be
published shortly. She is currently writing a book on Rawls.
[email protected]
Alyssa Bernstein is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Ohio University. She is a
past Fellow of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University.As
a graduate student at Harvard she worked with Rawls while writing her disserta-
tion: “Human Rights Reconceived: A Defense of Rawls’s Law of Peoples.”
[email protected]
David Boucher is Professor of Political Theory in the School of EuropeanStudies,
and Director of the Collingwood and British Idealism Centre, at Cardiff Univer-
sity. He has published in the area of international relations theory and political
theory. His recent books include Political Theories of International Relations from
Thucydides to the Present (1998), British Idealism and Political Theory, co-author
(2000), and Political Thinkers, co-editor (2003). He is currently working on the
development of human rights in their legal, philosophical and political guises.
[email protected]
Allen Buchanan is currently James B. Duke Professor of Public Policy Studies
and Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. His work spans issues in political
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